"I believe in limited government, and the 20th century has been the century of government. The data is uniform. The government has failed at every single task it has set out to do, with the exception of waging war."
- Bart Kosko

Surgical alteration is a repeated theme in this book. Others have facial grafts, unusual dentition and even selected melanin boosting.

Case turned his head and looked up into Wage's face. It was a tanned and forgettable mask. The eyes were vatgrown sea-green Nikon transplants. Wage wore a suit of gunmetal silk and a simple bracelet of platinum on either wrist. He was flanked by his joeboys, nearly identical young men, their arms and shoulders bulging with grafted muscle.

Muscle grafts or transplants are used to repair damage to existing tissue. For example, in 2001 a seven year-old boy almost lost his leg in a car accident. The biggest problem was the damage to the muscle tissue.

Surgeons transplanted the latissimus dorsi, a muscle in the upper back which is not vital to everyday movement. The operation was successful; the boy plays soccer with friends today.

Of course, the heart is a muscle, and heart transplants are not quite routine, but the survival rate is getting better every year.

I'm not aware of this kind of surgery being done to enhance strength in an otherwise healthy person. But compared with body modification on the scale in Samuel R. Delany's Babel-17, this may not seem so extreme. See the entry for decorative implant.